


A short lesson

by Kaffeinated_Krow



Category: Stand Still Stay Silent
Genre: Alternate History
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-17
Updated: 2016-09-17
Packaged: 2018-08-15 11:52:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 867
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8055259
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kaffeinated_Krow/pseuds/Kaffeinated_Krow
Summary: A group of students of the Pacific Alliance receives a lesson about the past.





	A short lesson

**Author's Note:**

> My writing skills are a little rusty as I've been relying on Ragnarok to edit together things I throw at a wall, ya'll are welcome to critique and give me suggestions to fix things up in the future.

ZULU: 0800  
LOCAL: 2200  
LOCATION: Pele’s Refuge-Museum of the Fall

The students milled about quietly in the rapidly darkening night, several were yawning as they woke up. The teacher in her fleet whites looks like she’d been carved from marble and basalt as she stood stock still at a parade rest waiting for her students to form up in their lines. They were almost all 7, with the exception of two who’d turned 8 and their teacher’s assistant, an older boy of 12 who was in his trainee greens. The rest were in hand me downs, a mix of different uniforms, old and new, enemies and allies forced together. “Once again, form up. It was your idea to change your class hours to fleet time. So live with it. Julius, is everyone present and accounted for?”

The TA’s head snapped up as he finished off his count, “Yes ma’am, all the students are accounted for. fifteen students present, one assistant, and you, two are sick with the flu and are at home.”

she nodded before turning on her heel and walking through the open doors behind her. “Remember, no touching.”

the students fell in, following along with the young TA bringing up the rear as one of the docents shuffled up, an ancient looking gray haired bear of a man, his accent was heavily accent with Slavic intonations. “Gute evening Petty Officer…. Or well morning I suppose. This is their first time at the museum, here Da?”  
She shook her head, “No, this is their second trip.”

“Gute, gute.. sweet children, future of our people, welcome to the museum of the fall. As we walk to the first exhibits, tell me why are we here?”

They quietly talked among themselves as they started walking, having formed a sort of half circle around the old man as he followed him into the museum proper, finally one of the bolder students, an Admiral’s son by the name of Adam spoke up “Because our ancestors survived?”  
“Correct in a way, but not the answer I wanted. We are here to remember the past, the sacrifices it took to survive the fall. An easier question, what happened seventy-seven years ago?”  
“The blight”

“Correct, and?”

“Most of mankind fell to darkness.”  
He nodded, before continuing. “Yes, most, but not all. And why is that?”

A few answers were said, but the old man shook his head before one of the girls raised her hand sheepishly and he pointed to her, as he walked backwards with practiced ease. “You, yes?”  
“The first admirals put their grudges aside, the old anim…animalsities”  
“Animosities” the TA quietly whispered.  
“the admirals of the bear, the dragon and the eagle… they met in the siber sea and chose to stand together and save as many as they could.”  
“A textbook answer… not altogether wrong child. In truth, the Chinese admirals did not trust the Federation or the States after the firebombing of Beijing…. Even after the Krakens tore through their “fleet of charity and reclamation” they did not want to join us willingly.” He sighed before waving to the first exhibit. “Which brings us to this. What is it?”

Sitting on a pedestal was a steel canister roughly three feet long, two feet in diameter with shock sensors poking out like cat whiskers along the rim.

The class answered in unison, “A clanger.”

“And what does it do?”

“It sings to the krackens, lures them in then brings pele’s fury upon them.”

“good, good. … Let’s see how well you know. Who made it?”  
The students mumbled a bit till they had two different answers, half said “Pike of the enterprise”, while most of the rest stayed silent, though a couple said “A-Div.”

“Hmmm…Pike, or A-div… you could say both are right. Admiral Pike realized early on the flotilla was at risk to the cursed beasts of the sea, the Krakens, so he turned to A-division, the master engineers that were keeping the Big E afloat without resupply and proper parts. ‘Build me a weapon to draw in and destroy these beasts’ he told them. “ He coughed before continuing, “For six days and nights they toiled in their engineering bay, locking out anyone and everyone ranked e-4 and above before producing the first clanger. It was a crude device, a wind up monkey with cymbols taped to an old anti-ship mine that may or may not have been ‘borrowed’ from the Krustchev. They chose a clear calm day south of the refuge to test it, well within range of the Missouri’s guns.”  
The class was quietly listening, hanging on every word and imagining the scene.  
“They say that you could hear the toy from the island, I was but a boy of three at the time so I do not remember, but it called in a kracken from the depth, the beast ate the clanger and then erupted, releasing it from its torment.”  
“Come now, we have other exhibits to see tonight.” He shuffled off along the museum the class following along entranced as he spun tales about the various people, weapons, events and legends that had occurred, been made and lived over the last 70 years.


End file.
